> The news from Spain earlier this week was there had been two earthquakes in
> Lorca, Southern Spain. UK television tended to confuse the issue by having
> its Madrid correspondent report it and it gave the impression that Lorca was
> a town close to Madrid.

> In fact it is some 200 miles south and east of Madrid, the third largest
> town (after Murcía city and Cartagena) in the small and often overlooked
> region of Murcía. While not a noted tourist destination it has a number of
> historic buildings and retained a very traditional atmosphere.

> The news dropped off UK TV within 24 hours but this item posted to an
> ex-pat forum suggests that it will take a long time to re-house thousands of
> people and to restore Lorca's town centre:

> "Been in & around town today & it's not looking good at all. There was really nothing open whatsoever as they are still inspecting all the buildings.
> The Architects & Surveyors have a colour coding scheme for damage;
> Green  No danger to occupy; Yellow  The owners can enter to collect their valuables etc, but they may not stay as important building work is needed,
> or the property may be demolished; Black, or in some cases Red  No entry at all because of the danger of immediate collapse.

> Nearly 6 out of 10 buildings so far inspected all over town are yellow ,red or black. There's not many green at all.

> For those of you who have visited Lorca & entered by coming off the autovia at j591 down to the fountain roundabou
> & turned left into the western end of town ( La Viña ), vast areas around here are to be demolished,
> including 2 out of the 4 apartment blocks on the left & possibly a 3rd.
> The opposite side of the road fares slightly better but behind is where the 3 story block collapsed
> ( they'll be looking at the construction of this as it wasn't that old ! )
> The situation is no better at the eastern end of town with many buildings marked for demolition.
> Of the 3 mercadonas in town none are open ( The one in La Viña is quite likely to be demolished ),
> the old Eroski centro comercial San Diego is closed although the car park is being used for parking
> & the road by the main exit has an emergency field hospital in it.
> The majority of the main street is closed off . The only supermarket, apart from some smaller ones, that is open is the Eroski Parque Almenara

> Where I live in Campillo , quite close to the Parque Almenara, the small village supermarket had people queuing this morning !

> The Huerta de la Rueda where the thursday market is held is an emergency centre combined with rescue workers tents & accomodation & emergency food & water supplies.
> There's quite a few around here that are likely to be demolished , including the Convento de religiosas Clarissas which is a building of historical importance & will obviously be rebuilt as it's  a listed building .

> No matter where you turned there were people taking what belongings they could carry from their apartments, those that were considered safe to enter,
> & loading them in cars & vans. Others could only look at buildings that are in imminent danger of collapse & no one is going to be allowed to enter & will be demolished along with everything inside.
> In all honesty the amount of fachadas cracked, broken , some barely hanging on to buildings in every street you looked down , makes you wonder how they are allowing anyone to be in the town at all. We helped people carrying stuff to their car but they couldn't take everything& what's left they were hoping to be allowed back for.

> The scale of the damage I found was far more than I was expecting , & there's not a part of the town that does not have vast amounts of buildings marked for demolition. If this had occurred in the UK I don't think they would be allowing anyone into the whole of the town , due to H&S, it's that bad . This is going to take many, many years to sort out."

>  --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Travel Spain" group.
> To post to this group, send email to travelspain@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> travelspain+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/travelspain?hl=en.